In a first, a federal judge has ruled that a biometric privacy law in Illinois potentially prohibits Web companies from compiling databases of faceprints.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Norgle in Illinois this week rejected online photo service Shutterfly’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that it violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. That law, which dates to 2008, prohibits companies from storing people’s “biometric identifiers,” including scans of face geometry, without their consent.